Family wants long term for petrol bomber

Shumsheer Singh Ghumman leaving the Cape Town Magistrate's Court. Photo: Mxolisi Madela

Shumsheer Singh Ghumman leaving the Cape Town Magistrate's Court. Photo: Mxolisi Madela

Published Mar 1, 2012

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A Clifton family is hoping for a lengthy prison sentence for British fund manager Shumsheer Singh Ghumman, who came to SA to find a hitman to kill his love interest’s father.

Philip Rhind, the father, said they were happy that Cape Town Regional Court magistrate Herman Pieters had convicted Ghumman of fraud, incitement to commit murder, attempted murder and malicious damage to property.

Rhind’s wife, Deborah, added: “We have been through an awful lot and are extremely pleased with the court’s decision.

“We hope we can put this behind us and move on.”

Rhind said his daughter Hannah, a public relations officer who was in San Francisco, had suffered “enormous strain” during the time she knew Ghumman.

The two met at a dinner party in May 2009 and regular contact continued until Hannah told her father that Ghumman was stalking her.

They took the matter to court and in September 2010 the South-Western Magistrate’s Court in London convicted Ghumman of harassing Hannah.

On Wednesday Pieters found that the State had proved that Ghumman had come to Cape Town – soon after his conviction in Britain – “with the utmost plan to cause harm to at least Philip Rhind”.

Pieters found that Ghumman was a dishonest witness who had “blatantly and deliberately” tried to mislead the court.

Pieters said that based on an e-mail Ghumman sent to Rhind on September 9, 2009, Ghumman had devised a plan in Britain to cause Rhind serious harm.

Pieters said one of the first things Ghumman had done once he arrived in Cape Town was drive past the Rhind’s home and with him he had photos of the Rhind family and their property – all part of the plan to take revenge on Rhind.

At the start of the trial last year, Ghumman admitted that he petrol-bombed the Rhind home on January 14 last year and slashed Deborah’s car tyres.

“(Ghumman) cannot expect me to believe that he coincidently, in the middle of the night, found all the material to construct the petrol-bombs, using tape coincidentally with the words ‘4 Hannah’ printed on it,” Pieters remarked.

Ghumman’s version that he came to SA posing as a photojournalist was “also clearly a well-planned disguise for his real intentions”, Pieters said.

He found that Ghumman had told local journalists that he was Michael Kirkham, a freelance journalist who ha dcome to SA to do stories on violent crime and required a “fixer” or middle man who could introduce him to gangsters.

Pieters found that Ghumman had in fact incited convicted robber Siyabulelo Yalezo to kill Rhind. “(Ghumman) did meet Yalezo and I found it as proven beyond reasonable doubt that he asked Yalezo to permanently get rid of the (Rhind) problem, whatever that might mean. I must stress that I can find no more that this was no more than a request to do the job,” Pieters said.

Sentencing proceedings are expected to begin on May 16.

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